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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Surya-4 Sunbox plumbing complete in the loft

3 December 2012: This was a day of work, and the plumbing in the loft is nearly complete for both the Sunboxes. Insulation, expansion tank and control systems are now needed.

The first part of the Return pipe is in size and it has a valve at the end so this part will be water tight. The cut pipe on the right is waiting to have a new Tee piece inserted.

Work continued in the loft to get the Flow pipe installed, and this is also sealed with a lever ball valve. Therefore we were able to refill the system with coolant and get the Sunbox working again, to take advantage of some nice winter sunshine during the afternoon.

Now the additional pipes are added (beyond the lever ball valve) for the Flow and Return. The target is those pipes at the far end with the airlock removers. The pipes in the foreground are sloping downwards (at about 1:100) to allow air to rise along the pipe. At the mid point, there is a slight bend upwards towards the airlock remover in the far distance.

The final 15mm connections are made, ensuring always that there is a natural route back to the airlock preventer. The indoor work is completed.

Down below, in the Utility room, I am making a start on the control system. I am using an identical controller to the AKA used in the first Sunbox, but I still have plenty of remembering to do to wire it in. More cable needs to be threaded through the house from the Utility to the furthest end of the loft, and down to the new Sunbox.

Douglas came round to help get more slating done, and the amount in this photo was done by morning coffee - 2 weeks ago, this much took almost a day. By lunchtime, Douglas had used up all the battens and done most of that wall.

A view of the new plumbing arrangement, well fixed to the wall on a plywood backing, giving options for fixing clips at the optimum locations.
Next task is to do the plumbing for the radiators in the actual Sunbox. I need some daylight for that!

10 Dec 2012 Postscript: I have bought an 8 litre expansion tank as I have realised that there is a chance that the Surya-4 loop could be closed off with the yellow valves but could be subject to thermal expansion if the sun shines. Each part of the loop must be able to expand safely. This is something I did not understand in the early days which is why I had a leak in the Sunbox circuit in March 2012.

16 Dec 2012 Postscript: Down in the Utility room, the AKA Thermo-controller is now wired in, along the the double-2-way light switch that provides the Override and Kill functions.

Hi, and thanks. I have just realised that it is not complete. When both the yellow valves are closed, as they might be sometimes, the liquid in that part of the loop could still swell and leak. I have bought an 8 litre expansion tank and will fit that before the system has been up for long. Currently, I am doing the electrical control wiring for the pump and controller.

March 2015: Work on the solar dehydrator has been progressing well, and it is nearly complete, lacking merely the top surface of the sola...

Peveril Solar House

Welcome to Charging the Earth!

PEVERIL SOLAR is the first house in the UK to be entirely solar heated all year round! It is Carbon Net-Zero. It is an 'Active House' balancing inputs and outputs. PV generation and heating system consumption are in favourable balance using concepts of energy storage. Others claiming houses to be the first date from 2013 (and are unbuilt); this house exists and was carbon zero since 2011.

The name 'Charging' refers to 'storing energy underground': we have custom-built solar collectors, Surya Sunboxes, with ETFE front surfaces, to pump solar heat deep down into the earth. The building's heat pump gets all of this back in Realtime (immediately), Diurnially (later during the evenings) or Interseasonally (in Winter, months after the Summer).

Thus, we are augmenting the heatpump by storing long term heat in the summer, and we are defrosting the ground in winter-spring conditions, supplying solar energy directly to the heat pump, through its ground loop.

The five-way pentangle of Grid, Borehole, Heat pump, PV roof and Sunboxes have made the house Carbon Zero (for metered consumption). It's working, and we will continue to record data, to maintain that efficiency, and write it up in this website through to next year and beyond.

During theAutumn of 2012, we built a small house extension that is ultra insulated, with a higher energy gain than it loses.

Note, that we still have a net import of power from the Grid, because we still need power for lighting, cooking and appliances. But for the building emissions (as opposed to lifestyle emissions), we have achieved a credit balance of the regulated quantities, as recorded by meters.

The web-log follows the project from this general idea in Aug. 2009 to a technology of Surya Sunboxes, which seem to be effective - reducing energy costs of the house. Some of the Tabs will help you to get background and theory. You can click below to 'Follow Blog' to get email notifications - or email me. Please add Comments to the blog entries. If you find items in the Glossary that need explaining better, please ask. Thankyou!

Publications

Equipment sponsor

Kingspan, for Varisol Tubes

Equipment Sponsor

MG Renewables

Equipment sponsor

Ice Energy Heat Pumps

Equipment Sponsor

Holscot, for ETFE panels, re-fronting the Sunbox

About the Author...

David Nicholson-Cole is a Lecturer in Architecture at the University of Nottingham, with 35 years experience of architectural teaching and practice, which has included special interests in construction, building information modelling, tall building design and renewable energy technologies.

Finally, thanks to my deceased aunt, Margaret Cringle (1915-2008) whose legacy paid for most of the cost of this project - as one who was always turning lights out to save electricity, she would be very pleased!